Because those who read his words would be .....alive..... Why would I assume anything else? Paul tells us to pray for all men and that's what those who are alive would certainly do. You said that this has "always been done" but we don't see that in the first century church but if you say so.
I see. What about those who didn't have the written words to read, but were told what was taught to them by the Apostles, told to these people? In any case, they're alive. I realize that. Yes, this was always done by the evidence and history of the Church from the beginning. As I said, the first and second century Christians only had bits and pieces of the NT writings, and they weren't handed out to people, but left in the altars to keep them protected. When the persecutions were going on those first 3 centuries or so, when a martyr died, people gathered up their bodies, or what was left of them, carried them to a spot to venerate their relics and ask them to pray for those left fighting on earth, defending the faith. Churches were built on the sites of where the martyrs died. Eventually, later on, instead of the Churches being built where the martyrs died, the martyr's bodies were moved and put in the altars of the Churches. This is also shown in Revelation regarding the souls of the martyrs under the altar table. It's part of Church history.
And who in the world said that bishops were the successors for the apostles? 1 Timothy 3 doesn't say anything of the sort.
Because the Apostles founded Churches and assigned people to oversee the churches. All of our churches (the EO), were founded by an Apostle.
St. Andrew - Constantinople
St. Peter - Antioch and Rome
St. James - Jerusalem
St. Mark - Alexandria
St. Matthew - I forget
St. Paul - Churches in Greece - what you read in the NT.
St. Thomas - founded churches in Asia.
and there are more, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
Interesting...the Jews in the their Tanakh doesn't have that book either.
No surprise. The Septuagint was put together by 70 Jews put together around 200 years before Christ came incarnate. This was the OT Christ and the Apostles read out of. After the fall of the Jewish Temple in 70 a.d., the Jews held a council and decided to change the books and make sure they were more authentically Hebrew, because the Septuagint was written in Greek because that was the national language of the time. Jews were speaking Greek more than Hebrew. Hebrew was used in the Temples. There is this understanding and belief that the Jewish authorities discarded the books the Septuagint had because they had a bit more intensity and more clearer images of who Christ was and the talk of the ever-virgin Mary.
That still doesn't explain that the answer would be yes to those who are spiritually alive. We don't even have it in scripture where Abraham went to God and interceded for Him and that God's answer was no.
Christ Himself told the story. You do not believe Abraham was in the presence of God and that he didn't know anything? Abraham said no. He wouldn't have said no if God said yes. The Saints only pray for us. They have no control on what the answer is. They pass on prayers for us to God and God answers us in due time as always. Just like any other time we pray.
We are saved through one another?
I understand why we pray for one another, I just don't understand how you think we can communicate with the dead and that they can hear us. And what you speak of is a corporate worship of those Christians who are physically present on earth.
No, when we worship in the Liturgy, we are in heaven on earth - we are worshiping with all the other people all over the world on earth and in heaven, and with the Trinity and the angels. Heavenly worship - as in Revelation and described in Isaiah.
Communicate with the dead. We are not having a conversation with the Saints, where they converse back to us (although this has happened with some of the Saints with experiencing Christ and the Theotokos and sometimes other Saints) but generally speaking, we ask them to pray for us, and that's it. Heaven, in our understanding, is constant worship and praise of God - think of Revelation and Isaiah - so, prayer is going on unceasingly. The Saints in heaven encourage us, cheer us on to finish the race. This intercession happens until His second coming. At that point, it ends because it is the end of the age and we then are where we are for eternity.
You said this, the bible doesn't claim this. The bible doesn't tell us that our senses are enhanced and intensified when we die. It also doesn't tell us that we can intercede for each other when we die.
I see, so since the bible doesn't explicitly describe how it is in heaven, it must not be. Do you think how it is in heaven is exactly the same as it is here? I think I asked you this before, but you didn't answer. I would appreciate an answer this time. Again, there's no death in Christ.
I understand the concept of one body, I don't understand concepts that scripture doesn't describe. How do you say "Dear Saint such and such" and still make the claim that we're still praying to God? Why not say "Our Father who art in Heaven....?
I say the Lord's Prayer nightly. I believe you don't understand the concept because you are not familiar with it, it is foreign to you. But this "concept" has always been this way since the first Christians. What we do, we were taught from generation to generation. Holy Tradition is the living out of the faith through the Gospels. This is what the Church does. So, it is not anything novel or innovative to us, but something comfortable and always part of our lives. You also hopefully will remember that St. Paul says to hold fast to the traditions taught both orally and written. We follow both of those, not one. St. John says not everything about Christ was written. It would take up stacks and stacks of books and cover the globe probably if they had tried (paraphrasing John).
So, all of what we have learned, we have learned through the praxis of the Church taught to us by the Apostles to our bishops and downward.
, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
